Good Friday KING OF KINGS "Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday"

You may be wondering "Where's Parts 1 & 2?"...

Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus Christ

...and the answer is; we haven't run them yet!

Since it's Good Friday, we're presenting the Dell Comics adaptation of the final part of the 1961 movie, covering the period from Palm Sunday to the Resurrection.

We'll run the first part around Christmas, and the second shortly after that.

While the writer for this movie adaptation from Dell's Four Color Comics King of Kings #1236 (1961) is unknown, the artist is Gerald McCann, a pulp artist who moved to comics in the early 1950s and did numerous Classics Illustrated covers and stories including "Abraham Lincoln" and "Ben-Hur".

Who says comics ain't educational?

Monday Mecha Madness GRAPHIC STORY MAGAZINE "Adam Link's Vengeance" Part Two: Vengeance

We Have Already Seen...

...actually, this scene appears later in this chapter!

Robot Adam Link, after realizing Humanity doesn't trust him (despite being innocent of committing the murder of his creator/"father", Dr Charles Link), decides to end his existence.

but another scientist, Dr Paul Hillory, aborts the process.

The scientist agrees to help Adam construct a mate, Eve.

But Dr Hillory isn't acting out of benevolence!

In assisting Adam, the scientist learns how to manipulate and control both the robots!

He then forces Adam to rebuild Eve in a larger, deadlier form...

Despite the downbeat ending, Adam Link continued to help humanity.

The original prose series ran for another seven stories, which were eventually combined into a "fix-up" novel...

Note the Isaac Asimov quote!

Before this particular adaptation, EC Comics attempted an ongoing comic series in Weird Science Fantasy.

Scripted by Otto Binder and illustrated by Joe Orlando, there were three stories directly adapted from the pulp tales; I, Robot in Weird Science Fantasy #27, Trial of Adam Link in Weird Science-Fantasy #28, and Adam Link in Business in Weird Science-Fantasy #29 (all 1955).

The cancellation of the comic due to the Werham-led Seduction of the Innocent anti-comics mania ended the series.

After the novel Adam Link: Robot was published, Binder and Orlando tried again, this time with Warren Publishing in the b/w Creepy magazine!

They re-conceived the three previously-published comics with a re-designed Adam Link, then adapted five more stories (including Adam Link's Vengeance), so,etimes as two-parters, before Warren ended the strip, which ran from Creepy #2 to Creepy #15 in 1966-7.

Both the EC and Warren versions are available in Weird-Science Fantasy and Creepy reprints!

Neither had been reprinted in standalone Adam Link books.

Next Week: the Return of...

It's Palm Sunday! Did You Know the Very First Captain of the USS Enterprise...

...was Jesus Christ?

Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus Christ in King of Kings (1961)

 Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike with Leonard Nimoy as Mr Spock in Star Trek "The Cage" (1964)

Here's"six degrees of separation" trivia in only five degrees:

• John Huston, who later did a prequel movie, The Bible: In the Beginning, directed Moby Dick, using a screenplay adapted by Ray Bradbury from the Herman Melville novel.
• Ray Bradbury wrote the voiceovers in King of Kings spoken by Orson Welles.
• Welles' The Shadow and Mercury Theatre radio series co-star Agnes Moorehead served as dialogue coach to  Jeffrey Hunter (Jesus Christ) in King of Kings.
• Jeffrey Hunter later played Christopher Pike, the first captain of the Starship Enterprise in the pilot episode of Star Trek, "The Cage".
• Star Trek did an episode, "Bread and Circuses", about a planet where parallel evolution produced a society that resembled a 20th Century version of the Roman Empire, complete with it's own "Christians" and Jesus Christ (who doesn't appear on-camera, but is mentioned in dialogue)!

Monday Mecha Madness GRAPHIC STORY MAGAZINE "Adam Link's Vengeance" Part One: the Rebirth of Adam Link

Last Time...

...we presented background information on sci-fi's first robot with his own ongoing series!

...and now, we re-present this graphic tale about him, unseen since since 1971.

This was the chapter break during the story's initial publication in Fantasy Illustrated #1 (1963), so we'll pause here until next Monday.

(The tale's original readers had to wait three months to see the conclusion!)

This is from the complete story reprint in Bill Spicer's Graphic Story Magazine #13 (1971).

Publisher/editor Spicer scripted this adaptation of Otto "Eando" Binder's novella, which was illustrated by long time pulp and comic illustrator D Bruce Berry, best known to most current fans for initially-working as Mike Royer's associate inking Jack Kirby's art during the King's 1970s DC period, eventually taking over entirely when Royer's commitments on other projects forced him to give up working on Kirby's material for a while.
There's a fascinating article about Berry at The Comic Journal HERE!

Holiday Reading Room AMAZING ADULT FANTASY "Beware of the Giants!"

It's not often you see Stan Lee's signature on cover art...

...(behind the giant boot) perhaps because it was probably meant as the title page for the following story (and, to tell the truth, I think the splash page below would've been a better cover)...

Hah!

Bet you thought I had forgotten St Patrick's Day, eh? 

This Stan Lee-scripted/Steve Ditko-illiustrated piece from Atlas' Amazing Adult Fantasy #14 (1962) has one fatal flaw...the clothing and architecture are more mid-European (Germany/Austria/Switzerland) than Celtic (Irish/Scottish)!

BTW, one of the rarely-noted aspects of this series were the kool individualized contents pages for each issue...

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